Ocean Tank

The towing tank and wave tank are part of Europe’s largest facilities of this type. The experiments conducted can test a lot of equipment in their use environment, river or sea. The structures studied are fishing vessels, ships and also equipments related to marine renewable energy such as wind turbines, floating turbines, tidal turbines or wave power systems.

TOWING TANK

The towing tank at Centrale Nantes is 140 m-long, 5 m-wide, with a constant depth of 3 m. It is equipped with a towing carriage able to go both ways, at speeds up to 8 m/s. At one end of the tank, a wave maker allows generating waves with wave heights up to 0.5 m. At the other end, a beach allows waves to break, therefore limiting the reflection of waves in the tank. It is the second largest towing tank in France, the 1st at the academic level.

HYDRODYNAMIC AND OCEAN ENGINEERING TANK

Of a length of 50 m by 30 m of width and 5 m of depth. The basin is equipped with a segmented wave beater composed of 48 independent flaps to generate directional waves. A wind generating system producing an air flow of 3m by 3m section with speeds up to 15m/s can be placed above the basin. This basin allows the simulated physical simulation of floating systems, navigating or anchored in the open sea (ships, EMR systems or oil platforms). Due to its size and generation capacity, it is currently the largest basin in France dedicated to this type of study.

SHALLOW WATER BASIN

This basin of 20m x 9.5m x 1m is equipped with two mobile and motorized footbridges that overhang it. They allow the installation of equipment or instruments. It is also equipped with a unidirectional wave-type beater.

RECIRCULATING CANAL

This canal has a test vein of 2 m wide and about 10 m long. The maximum use depth of the basin is about 1.10 m. A part of the test vein is equipped with glass side walls (1.6 m wide), allowing visual observation of the flow, as well as measurement, for example by laser velocimetry, of fluid velocities. It is used for studies of marine propulsion systems, turbine performance, stationary flows and stabilization (appendages, foils, fins, etc.)